Something born , i.e. a lad or offspring
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H3206, yeled, names a child, boy, offspring, or young person. The noun is related to birth, but its actual referents range from a newly weaned child to boys, children in a household, young men serving at court, and even animal young.
Reader summary
Full entry for יֶלֶד (H3206) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3206, yeled, names a child, boy, offspring, or young person. The noun is related to birth, but its actual referents range from a newly weaned child to boys, children in a household, young men serving at court, and even animal young.
The BSB source-word alignment has 89 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the child (16), children (8), the boy (6), the young men (5), and children (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (19), 2 Samuel (12), Exodus (12), 1 Kings (9).
H3206, yeled, names a child, boy, offspring, or young person. The noun is related to birth, but its actual referents range from a newly weaned child to boys, children in a household, young men serving at court, and even animal young. English renderings such as child, boy, son, children, young men, or youth follow the scene rather than a fixed age chart. The word identifies someone by generation or stage of life; it does not by itself tell readers the person's maturity, innocence, covenant standing, moral character, or legal responsibility.
Scripture repeatedly places children where adult power becomes morally visible. Hebrew midwives fear God and let the boys live under Pharaoh's murderous command. Moses is hidden, placed in a basket, and received through the actions of women because he cannot preserve himself. Solomon's command to divide a living child exposes the true mother's compassion and tests competing claims. David's child's death is narrated without sentimental escape, and Jerusalem's children suffer in war and exile. These passages make children visible as persons whose lives matter to God, but H3206 alone does not supply a modern age category, a complete child-protection policy, or an explanation for every childhood suffering.
The noun also carries promise and restored public life. Isaiah announces that a child is born and a son is given, then assigns titles and government that the verse and its royal context make extraordinary. Christian reading receives this promise in the light of Jesus without turning every occurrence of yeled into a hidden messianic reference. Jeremiah calls Ephraim a delightful child while voicing the Lord's remembered compassion after discipline. Zechariah imagines boys and girls playing in Jerusalem's streets as a sign of communal peace, security, and renewed generations. The lexical thread therefore joins vulnerability, growth, judgment, grief, promise, compassion, and hope. Faithful application protects children, listens to their real circumstances, refuses to spiritualize abuse, grieves losses honestly, and celebrates a peace in which young people can live and play without fear.
H3206 ranges from infants and boys to children, offspring, and youths, placing younger lives within stories of protection, growth, contested custody, death, royal promise, divine compassion, and restored public peace.
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live.
The boys are targets of state violence, and the midwives' fear of God produces life-preserving resistance. The verse exposes adult obedience by its effect on vulnerable children.
But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
Moses is a vulnerable child carried by maternal courage and a fragile vessel. God's deliverance unfolds through concrete protective actions, not through the child's own strength.
So the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
Isaac's growth reaches a recognized household milestone celebrated by Abraham. The narrative locates ordinary development inside the larger promise without making every developmental event miraculous.
And the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
Solomon's shocking test reveals which claimant values the child's life above possession. The account commends discerning justice; it does not provide a normal investigative method or excuse threats toward children.
On the seventh day the child died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Look, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to us. So how can we tell him the child is dead? He may even harm himself.”
The narrative states the child's death and the servants' fear about David's response. Pastoral reading must not make bereaved families reenact David's particular judgment context or explain every child's death by parental sin.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The promised child bears royal government and names beyond an ordinary heir. The verse's own claims and canonical reception establish its messianic weight, not the common noun yeled by itself.
Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord.
The Lord speaks of disciplined Ephraim with remembered affection and deep compassion. Child language serves covenant restoration while preserving both truthful correction and enduring love.
And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”
Children playing openly become a public sign of restored safety and generational hope. Peace is pictured not only as absent warfare but as ordinary life without terror.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Denotes human offspring from infancy through youth; emphasizes biological origin and dependent status rather than age specificity
Denotes human offspring from infancy through youth; emphasizes biological origin and dependent status rather than age specificity
something born, i.e. a lad or offspring BDB: child Usage: boy, child, fruit, son, young man (one).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 90 lexical occurrence verses.
יֶלֶד is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3206 makes younger lives visible across the full moral range of biblical history. Pharaoh treats Hebrew boys as threats to be eliminated, while the midwives fear God and preserve them. Moses' mother responds to danger with practical courage, and the child is carried toward a future he cannot yet imagine. Isaac grows and reaches an ordinary milestone within extraordinary promise.
Solomon's court scene turns on whether a claimant will protect a child rather than possess him. Second Samuel refuses to hide the death of David's child, requiring pastoral honesty about grief and restraint about causal claims. Isaiah then announces a child whose government and names open royal hope far beyond ordinary childhood, while Jeremiah uses beloved-child language for God's compassionate memory of disciplined Ephraim.
Zechariah closes the movement with children playing in safe streets. The word itself does not create a complete theology of childhood, but its contexts repeatedly ask what kind of world adults build around the young. Gospel-shaped teaching answers with protection of vulnerable life, truthful justice, patient formation, lament beside the bereaved, and hope centered in the promised Son.
It must never use a child's dependence to excuse domination or use biblical family language to conceal abuse.
Isa.9.6
H3206 is a masculine noun used for a child, boy, offspring, son, or youth, with singular, plural, construct, and suffixed forms. The governed word table has 89 tokens across 76 verses and 19 books, one fewer than the selected artifact count. It can also denote young men and animal young, so neither biological infancy nor legal minority should be inferred without context.
The New Testament receives Isaiah's promised child in the identity and reign of Jesus, while Jesus welcomes children and warns against causing little ones to stumble. Those connections depend on quotation, fulfillment, and teaching contexts. Greek nouns such as paidion, teknon, and neaniskos overlap parts of H3206's range but are not interchangeable with every Hebrew occurrence.